High Hopes Among Japan Inc. for Abe After Election

A day after Japan's ruling coalition scored a decisive victory in Sunday's upper house election, business leaders voiced their hopes that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party would now have the mandate to go ahead with his planned economic reforms, making note of what they'd most like to see his administration accomplish.

"We welcome the ruling party's victory," said Hiromasa Yonekura, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, the country's largest business lobby. The election result shows "the strong support of the public for the Abe administration's efforts to exit deflation and rebuild the economy," Mr. Yonekura said in a statement.

Of the issues to be tackled, "steady hikes in the consumption tax are indispensable to establish a sustainable social security system and to maintain trust in the nation's fiscal" position, he added.

The head of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a domestic business association, also said Mr. Abe's victory reflected the public's high hopes for economic revival, but added that the administration needed to "make all-out efforts to realize an economic recovery that reaches a broader level of small and mid-sized companies and local regions."

"We hope Prime Minister Abe will move ahead to resolve the problems that are still pending, both domestically and internationally," Chairman Tadashi Okamura said in a press release.

A number of business leaders said they were hopeful that the election, which gave Mr. Abe's ruling coalition control of both houses of parliament, would provide a level of political stability that had been lacking in Japan for the past several years. The instability had resulted in a cripplingly rapid pace of turnover in government, with new prime ministers every year or two.

"We welcome the fact that a stable political administration of at least three years will be secured," now that the gridlock caused by different parties controlling the two houses of parliament has come to an end, Yasuchika Hasegawa, chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives, said in a statement Sunday.

Mr. Hasegawa said the government should work aggressively toward addressing such important issues as economic growth, restoring fiscal health, social-security reform and energy policies.

Some business leaders pushed for specific measures to help their industries.

"We strongly hope the administration led by Mr. Abe will implement policies that will help (the steel industry) regain competitiveness," including tax reforms designed to promote corporate capital outlays and lowering the effective corporate tax rate, said Hiroshi Tomono, chairman of the Japan Iron and Steel Federation. Mr. Tomono is also president of the industry leader Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal

"What we consider important is whether specific policies can be implemented, aimed at economic recovery," said Hiroshi Mikitani, head of the Japan Association of New Economy. He said the association will continue to watch the government closely and will make proposals when necessary on its policy steps in three areas: the promotion of innovation, its emphasis on entrepreneurship and its response to globalization.